CatMarley Loc: North Carolina

I think your 18-55 will do everything you need to do for family group portraits.

Oly Guy

I have a 17 50 2.8 Tamron Nikon which works great on a d3200 cropped sensor -works great as a 25-75 or so-also very nice color and sharpness. I find it great for those situations. Also my 35mm 1.8 is very complementary in low light. Hard to beat! Used each is under 2.75 -

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

Using the 85mm lens indoors may present some challenges. On a DX camera, it has the full frame equivalent field of view of a 127.5mm lens. That's a pretty narrow field of view! It works great for head-and-shoulders portraiture, but for 3/4, full length, and group compositions, it's a bit long. The 35mm will be fine for those looser three compositions.

If you have good lighting, the 85 will work well hand-held. But you most probably should use it with a shutter speed of 1/125 second, or faster if you have trouble holding it still. If you're going for "that Christmas tree lights ambiance," you'll want a tripod. A little bounced flash, umbrellas, soft boxes, supplementary photo-grade CFL lamps, LED panels, or other photo grade supplementary lighting may be needed.

Wingpilot Loc: Wasilla. Ak

Indeed, you do cover the gamut of focal lengths that would be good for what you want to do, with all the lenses you have. The only drawback is that none of those is a fast lens. My recommendation for taking group pics like you describe, would be a 35mm f/1.8 or faster. That way you won’t have to back off so far to get the group in the frame, and you’ll have a fast enough lens to work well in dimmer lighting conditions inside. And such a lens won’t be very expensive.

cambriaman Loc: Central CA Coast

If the im,ages are for Holiday cards, use one of the lenses you have. If the images are for printing large for framing/gifts then the Nikon 85mm is the lens to use.

amfoto1 Loc: San Jose, Calif. USA

You mention working indoors with a "makeshift studio" and "backdrops".

In all likelihood, you could use your 18-55mm lens.

For portraits of individuals with an APS-C camera, 50mm to 85mm are the two extremes of the "ideal range" or "traditional, short telephoto portrait focal length range".

HOWEVER, 85mm can be too long for indoors... if "studio" space is limited. It might be fine for a tight shot of a person's face, but in many rooms may be unable to frame a head and torso shot (let alone a group people and part of the background). So right off the bat I'd lean toward 50mm for indoor use.

NEXT, you are probably talking about a group portrait, since you mention "family pictures". Plus you will be wanting to incorporate some of the backdrop "scene". So you might need that 35mm or even 28mm or 24mm focal lengths that can be done with your kit lens.

FINALLY, the reason large aperture primes (such as f/1.4 or f/1.8) are popular for portraits is to be able to strongly blur down backgrounds in situations where you have little control over them, such as shooting candid portraits on location. However, when shooting in studio with a theme background, it's just the opposite... You don't need or even want a large aperture. You will need to stop down to f/5.6 or f/8 to render the background recognizably and presumably will have some control over lighting to be able to use the smaller aperture without having to push your ISO too high. (It can be any type of lighting, though you may be wise to set a Custom White Balance and/or shoot RAW files so white balance can most easily be adjusted, if needed.)

For all these reasons, your 18-55mm lens will probably work fine. The 35mm f/1.8 might serve if you have limited lighting, but you'll have to be careful that a large aperture doesn't render too little depth of field and cause the background to blur down too much. Do some test shots and look at them closely, then adjust as needed.

You'll also need to be careful about getting too close to your subjects with focal lengths such as 24mm, 28mm or even 35mm, 50mm. Shorter focal lengths used too close will cause perspective distortion of peoples' features... i.e., make their nose look big and their ears look small. It can be humorous... or disastrous, depending upon the effect you're trying to achieve!

Also keep people away from the edge of the image when using shorter focal lengths... an effect called anamorphic distortion can make their body parts look oddly mis-shapened. "Elephant legs", "Hellboy arm" and "Popeye arms" are all too possible, if you aren't careful! Again, might be fun if they have a good sense of humor.... or not if they don't want to look silly.

dsiner Loc: Kent, WA

Thanks everyone.My search for a lens was based on the fact i may have limited lighting and was considering faster ones than my current stock ( other than the 35mm 1.8). Sounds like what i need to do is test the scene and maybe add a light or two(much cheaper than lenses) and use what I have. This isn't present opening but a posed photo shoot with scene backdrops.

Toolking Loc: Pacific Northwest

Since you are using a crop sensor camera this would be a good choice. It would be roughly a 36-105 mm. If you can use your foot zoom a 50mm 1.8 as mentioned elsewhere. That would be equivalent to a 75mm (close to the 85 generally used for portraits.)

Nikonman44

Did you check with the wife yet???

CatMarley Loc: North Carolina

Consider bouncing flash off a white ceiling, or using a sheet of paper as a diffuser on the flash for extra light. Easier to show you what I mean than describe it.

dsiner Loc: Kent, WA

Check with the wife? It's easier to ask for forgiveness than perpission.😉

dsiner Loc: Kent, WA

Permission

burkphoto Loc: High Point, NC

It was much funnier the first time.

GQ Loc: Windsor, Ontario Canada.

Tell my wife that!!!

jccash Loc: Longwood, Florida

Aster 33 years that’s what I’ve discovered as well. Have the Harley, bought her an older Porsche 986, bought the D500 and 200-500 lens. Would practice this for the purchase of the D850 and some 2.8 glass but updating our house for her with new floors and some furniture. Perhaps after the upgrade go for additional camera but mainly shoot birds and wildlife as well as GT car racing so most likely hold off on that for now.